
Book S" 



V 



as 



■ NOH^' AIVI> THEi\. 

OF THE 

HON. CHARLES H. VAN WYCK. 

UPON THE REPORT OF THF. 

COMMITTEE OF THIRTY-THREE CPON THE STATE OF THE UNION 



/.^■.^^ 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVKR, JANUARY 29, 1861. 

Mr. VAN WYCK. This week compIetes{| Why, with no greater cau?e of complaint, 
the nineteenth nnniversaiy of one of thej [were your people then so .strongly attached 
most exciting scenes witnessed in the Ame-jlto the Union ? Why did you tlien deny the 
rican Congress. Ou the 25th day of Janua-, [power in Congress or the'States to dissolve 
ry, 1842, John Quincy Adams introduced; it ? If the Union was an indissoluble bond 
the petition of forty-five citizens of Haver-ilthen, why not now? 

hill, Massachusetts, praying for a peaceful* j The position we occupy on the slavery 
dissolution of the United States. Desiring! [question, and the policy of the Government 
that the right of petition should be recog-ljas to the Territories, is the same held by the 
nized, he moved its reference to a committee,! jfather.s of the Republic, nearly all the states- 
with instructions to report against its pray-jimen of the South, and the Democratic party 
er. He, with nearly the entire North andiidown to 1848. Because we entertain those 
South, M'ere opposed to dissolution. For aiyiews and believe in that policy, and for no 
t\'w years previous to that time, by rea.^onj other reason, political incendiaries would 
of the excitement with England and her co- htrample upon the flag and burn the temple 
lonies, and other causes, the slavery agita-ijof freedom. 

tion was deeper and more intense than ati. On the question of dissolution we now 
any period in the history of our country. jjstand where the people of the South and the 
The very men who then could not find wordsi'Deraocratic party stood in 1842. Shall we 
sufficiently strong to anathematise those theyi now hesitate to stand like men where they 
called traitors, now seem to be courting a|, proudly stood? And if fall we must, will it 
traitor's doom, and madly rioting in a trai-|]not be'some consolation to fall amid such 
tor's saturnalia. The folly of Abolitionistsj '.splendid ruins, because it will be amid the 
did not force the South into treason against; | wreck of your father's policy and your own 
God and man. Efforts were then being madej we will be ingulfed? The "Abolitionists of 
to abolish slavery in the dock-yards, arse-||the North claimed to be oppressed in 1842 
uals, and District of Columbia. Personal! jbecause Congress had spurned the right of 
liberty bills existed in many of the States -'petition. Did you propose a great national 
New York had passed one in 1840. Henry|jCoramittee to bargain a truce with traitors 
A. Wise then predicted, with as much hope|!by a barter and betrayal of principle? To 
of l*ulfillment as most of your prophesies at some of the men who are now reeking with 
this time, that in ten years a black Repre-, treason and conspiring against the freedom 
sentfltive would appear in the National Leg-jlof man, a reference to their past acts and 
islature. All the evils which you now la-jideclarations might bo of profit, 
ment existed, then, and the permanency of [ When the petition referred to was present- 
vour institutions in more jeopardy. Sinceiied, Mr. Hopkins, of Virginia, asked "If jt 
that time, Florida has been added to the ga-|jwas in order to burn the petition in presence 
laxy; Texas has been bought and acquired! jof the House." 

and surrendered to slavery; California was j Mr. Wise, of Virginia, asked " If it was in 
obtained, and the Constitutioa of a sover-; 'order to move to censure any member pre- 
eign people placed on her mountains and! 'senting such a petition? and to move that the 
valleys the royal robe of free labor, andiHouse do now proceed to inquire whether a 
planted on her brow the diadem of liberty ;' member has offered such a petition to this 
New Mexico has been acquired, and that im-;!boily, and to proceed accordingly." 
raense Territory, larger than the original! mV. .Merriwether, of Georgia, "Did not 
thirteen States, you have been siifl'ered toHthink that such a petition should be allowed 
dedicate to the " peculiar institution."! jto come within the walls of this House.'' 
Three-fourths of the territory acquired sincei I Mr. Campbell, of South Carolina, "Did 
1842 has been surrendered to slavery; and! not think that a petition of such a character 
filave property has been steadily increasing should be thus lightly pased over." 
in numbers and value. In 1850, a morej| Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, resolved ; 
stringent slave law was given to appeaseli ,,„, . . • . , ., . 

vour B-rowinp- dpmiind<3 i "That, in presoutmg to the coneiJeration uf this 

%uur growing aeraanos. House a petition for a diseolutioi. of the Union, the 




d 



X 



z 



incmtoi horn MosuftcliOPetts-iMr. Adutiis) han juKtl.y 
iiicuricil thu cinsuri' of tliis House.'' ' l 

Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky, moved tho fnl-; 
lowing resohition : 

" Whereas the Fftlcial Con&titiitiMii is a }■!•}■ inaiimt 
form of Qoviirnmont and ot pcrptiuat oblii^iitii.ii, \mtil 
altered or modified in the mode pointed out in that in-j 
strument." * * '• A proposition, there-! 

fore, to dissolve the organie hiw. is si direct proposition' 
to each member to commit perjury, and involven tbei 
crime of liigh treason:" * . * '• is nl 

wound at the Constitution, the existence of th6 coiin-j 
try. and the liberties of tho people of these Stiitcs." I 

"It struck him with horror, it stupified 
him; he had not Ijclieved it possible that 
there could be men wild enough in the coun-l 
try, and viad ejwiijjh, to make .1 proposition^ 
that the Government of the United States, 
should terminate its own existence, and then! 
to submit it to the members of that House,} 
inviting them to conntiit perjury or raorali 
treason.'' "Coining from any quarter, iti 
was sacrilege. The Union was the only 
means of safety and liberty." 

Mr. Wise asked for a voice from the tombs, ^ 
that the Farewell Address of Washingtoi)| 
might be heard. After extracts were read, | 
he said, " that the anti-slavery party was! 
against the Government; was an English! 
party. Yes, while the English Aliolitionists! 
were moving on Jamaica, and coiiteraplatingi 
to make their next demonstration on Cuba;' 
while thev were establishing lines of a com- 
mercial marine, connecting England and the 
"West Indies with this country, and thus; 
opening the way for a uiilitary marine toj 
follow, which, at the first sound of the toc-| 
sin, would pour in armies of trained freej 
blacks upon the whole South, this proposi-! 
tion to dissolve the Union was siinullane-i 
ously brought forward.'' Can any ardent^ 
southerner present so formidalile a list of: 
grievances now ? " .'\nd how hapi)ens it' 
that men, who held these sentiments, should; 
be found bringing forward Tory plans fon 
upturning the (jovernnient ?'' "It was a, 
I'ritish abolition disunion party." Speak- 
ing of Mr. Adams's motion to report against 
the petition, he adds: "What did that amount 
to? No more than this, that it was not ex- 
pedient to dissolve the Union just at this 
time ; not yet; not now. They had not yet 
lost all their love for that Union recom- 
mended by the Father of their Country. " 
'■ This very ex-President was the very man 
Ck-ho, for the first time, invited the Congress 
of the United States to receive, discuss, de-! 
liberate upon, a proposition to break thej 
union of the States. It pointed to that 
which, should God spare his life, he expect- 
ed to witness before ten years passed over 
his head — the election of a black Represen- 
tative to a seat on that floor. English in- 
fluence at home and abroad w;;s in league to 
dissolve this Union." " Go on ; you shall 
have your reward. Go on with this, your 
moral treason, and carry it so far as to come 
^vithin Chief .Tu-tiee Miir>hairs decision in 



Burr's case; and you shall get your homp. 
|There were no dissolutionists in his section 
of the country. If they dared to show their 
ifaces in his section, they would meet with a 
very speedy and a ytvy summary disposal." 
:So spoke Henry A. Wise, now (nie of the 
ileader? of this organized armed rebellion. 
I Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, said : "They 
jhad no right to dissolve this Union ; but were 
jbound to sustain it. IJecause ^e knew that 
:to dissolve the bonds of this Union, and se- 
'paratc the difTerent States composing this 
Confederacy, making the Ohio river the line, 
and Mason and Dixon's line the boundary, 
he knew, as soon as that was done, slavery 
was done in Kentucky, Maryland, and a large- 
portion of "Virginia, and it would extend to 
!all the States south of this line. The dis- 
jsolution of the Union was the dissolution of 
jslavery." 

Mr. Botts, in his remarks, stated that a 
similar resolution, some three or four years 
ago, was prepared by a member from South 
iCarolina. Mr. William Butler, of that State', 
'desired to know to whom he referred ; he 
[replied Mr. Rhett. Mr. Rhett then disclaim- 
|ed any serious intention in the resolution, 
Ithat " he only proposed it as an amendment 
jto a proposition to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia; that he bad no ex- 
pectation of passing it or taking a vote on 
!it." • 

South Carolina talks very much of status 
i9«o just now. What was her status quo \n 
J1812? 

I Mr. .Marshall further said : "You maydis- 
isolve — God in his mercy forfend that you 
ever should. But you will never do it but 
by force. Never! Never!" "Will they 
tell the American people that the people of 
|Massachusetts have a right to dissolve their 
Quion. It is the detestation of the South to 
Jabolition that makes her a unionist. And it 
\s the love of the North for abolition that 
;has brought her in favor of dissolution." 
" It goes beyond southern nullifiers. The 
convention that sat at Columbia never took 
the ground that Congress had power to dis- 
solve the Union.'' 

Our case is here fully made otit, and the 
argument exhausted. Your own men have 
proved that neither Congress nor the States 
'can dissolve this Union, save by force; anil 
jwhen you have already commenced that pro- 
icess, you leave us only one course — to op- 
pose force by force. You have driven us to 
the wall ; and we will not, we cannot sur- 
render. We are told that a removal of the 
icause of danger will produce peace. But 
what is the cause? You say slavery agita- 
tion. In that you stop one degree short of 
the real cause — which is slavery itself. Now, 
will you exercise an enlarged patriotism by 
removing the cause of danger ? You may 
have an open powder magazine on a public 
thoroM^jhfare of the world Will \fju qunr- 



rel with every traveler who carries a lighted 
taper whenever his convenience or wants 
require ? Bettor close your deadly magazine, 
and remove it from the trciid of men. We 
do not ask this. We only insist thiit yon 
shall not with it curse the common Territo-j 
ries of the nation. Yon do not pretend that 
jour institution is endangered in the vStates.l 
True, you sometimes lament about personal 
liberty bills, and the tardy execution of thol 
fugitive slave law. 

The attemptf'd prohibition of slavery i m 
the Territories is the real cause of complaint, j 
The condition of all the Territories we nowj 
own is settled, and we had hoped the inor-j 
diuate desire to plunder our weak neighbors 
was subdued. But, mark what the Vice 
President, and one of the defeated candidates 
for the Presidency, in a letter to the Gov- 
ernor of Kentucky, January 6, 1861, says : 
"The Southern States cannot afford to be shut 
oflf from all possibility ofe.xpansion towards 
the tropics by the hostile action of the Federal 
Government.'' Let us not be deceived ; thisi 
key unlo<ks the southern mind and passions. I 
Dreams of Cuba, Mexico, the Central andj 
South American States, festoon the bloody 
machinations of southern traitors, as theyi 
rendered gorgeous the unholy schemes ofi 
Burr and his confederates. In one breath 
you groan at the evils suffered from thej 
Union and the Federal Government, although 
nearly the whole time from its existence itj 
has been in your hands or subject to yourj 
control. In the next you boast of your great 
wealth and power ; of the spread of youri 
dominions ; the increase in the number and: 
value of your slaves ; the great overshadow- 
ing omnipotence of cotton. A few daysj 
since, you sought to demonstrate that north-i 
ern wealth and commerce, French industry, 
and British enterprise, dei)ended upon a few 
slaveholders. The gentleman from Virginia, 
[Mr. Gar.vett,] boastinglj' pointed to the; 
time, in a few decodes, when the slave popu- 
lation would number thirty million. 

I stop not here to prove the divinity of 
freedom or the despotism of slaverj-. With 
your cannon pointed at the Capitol, and your 
bayonets almost at our breasts, it is no time 
to argue abstract principles, neifher on our 
knees to supplicate for life. At all times, on 
a question of freedom, man should be right 
from instinct. Would you take a man by the 
sounding sea to hear the sullen roar of i'ts 
waters, or stand him upon the yawning gulf, 
down which volcanic fires madly rage, or 
dart their suljihureous fumes and hissing 
front into the vale below ? Would you place 
hiiu in the smiling valley, teeming with the 
fruits of autumn, radiating the cheering sun- 
.-^hiiie of mid-day or tlie mellow moonbeams 
of evening ; or from the bold mountain sum- 
mit, beyond the reach of culture's hand or 
nature's growth, where the dew of evening 
or the rain of morning only gives life to the 



stunted pine and oak, where the eagle builds 
his eyrie, and the crest wreathed in perpet- 
ual snow ? Would you stop coldly to reason 
with such a man the existence of a divine 
Creator? So, when you take a man, and 
stand him by the great ocean of humanity, 
where he bends hi? ear to catch the surging 
wail of oppression and want ; when he stands 
over the yawning volciinic fires which des- 
potism has created und is endeavoring to 
conceal ; or in the little \alley of human 
liappiness, full of sunshine and peace; or 
high u]) on the dreary mountain of oppres- 
sion, where scarce a green thing may grow, 
where the sunshine of life, its dews and rain-, 
make desolation more desobite : will you 
pause to argue the divinity of man's free- 
dom, or prove his inherent right to him- 
self? 

But we have now to deal with facts, not 
fancies ; realities, not theory. We supposed 
that we lived in a Republic where free white 
men regulated its action and controlled its 
destiny ; that it was a Government of the 
people for th'e people. For three-fourths of 
a century we have grown in wealth, num- 
bers, and power, although you claim to have 
suffered from multiplied wrongs. JSouth Car- 
olina, in one of her many declarations of in- 
dependence, says it has been going on for 
seventy-four years. Quite likely ; our fathers 
commenced a crusade against slavery even 
in the colonial state ; they renewed it in the 
Declaration of Independence, and continued 
it after the adoption of the Constitution, in 
its almost immediate abolition in one-half 
the States of the Union. And now you scan- 
Idalize the memory of the revolutioiuiry pat- 
riots, who hewed the pathway to national 
greatness through rivers of blood, with lire 
and sword, by charging that the only motive 
for unchaining the slave was the sordid 
and base consideration that slavery would 
not pay. 

Grant, if you please, that slavery is right ; 
what then ? You say that the Territories 
belong to the people of the wIidIc country. 
Shall not th^y who own it contiol it? Is it 
unsafe to intrust tiieir destiny 'vith the sov- 
ereign people of the Republic? The major- 
ity, constitutionally exjjrcssed. ihust govern. 
t\'hat do you menn when you talk of the 
jbrute force of majorities, which is manifested 
iwithout force, and exercised without vio- 
lleuce ? Is that not safer than the brute force 
lof a minority? 

You say you are excluded from settling in 
!the Territories. Nolso. Of your eight mil- 
lion population, scarce three hundred thou- 
sand arc owners of slaves. The hearthstones 
lof luitny solitary cal>ins, far away towards 
the light of the sotting sun, .ire cheered by 
the songs which the emigrant learned in his 
tsouthern home. Your seven million live huu- 
Idred thousand population who have not the 
[advantages of negro property can cros3 thu 



dark line wliicli slavery rc.Hr,', tiiui nui be 
compelled to work iu the furrow wet wiih 
the sweat of the slave. This very day, is! 
not a fair proportion of tho popiilatioii ot' 
that countf}' — of whicli 

'• 'Twas biiid that far througli thi' IbroBt ■wild 

And over tlie mountains bold, 
Waa a land wliose rivers arid dai itening caves 

Went gcm'd with the puruBt gold" — 

men reared in a southern clime? Let nie illus- 
trate; A poor boy was born in Kentucky; not 
to an inheritance of wealth and slaves, buten-j 
titled to the privileges of that immense ferri-| 
lory over which your fathers said the darkj 
wing of slavery should never be spread. He: 
removed to Illinois ; by industry carved out| 
for himself reput;ition, honor, and greatness, 
and now stands a living embodiment of the 
principles we profess — the lawfully elected 
President of the United States. Will Ken-1 
tucky this day sny that the ordinance of Jef-] 
fcrson, excluding slavery from the greatj 
Northwest, prevented her citizens from en-j 
joying its benefits, or aspiring to the high-. 
est offices in the gift of a free people ? j 

The policy of the dominant party must pre- 
vail. In 1820, the polii-y of the dominant 
and slaveholding part}- said slavery should! 
not go north of3t>°30''; in 1854, you reversed[ 
that policy, and the dominant party saic^that 
slavery should have a struggle with freedom 
north of that line, and that free labor or slave 
labor should be baptized in fire and blood oni 
the plains of Kansas. We submitted to the| 
bruXe force of majorities then. In 185C,you 
claimed that your Nebraska bill was sus-j 
tained by the people; and the whole patron-i 
age of the Government, the Treasury and 
sword of the nation unsheathed to subdue us} 
we submitted to the brute force of majori- 
ties then. Mr. Douglas told you that by his 
tkeory of popular sovereignty you hod ac- 
(|uired New Mexico to slavery; wesubmitted to' 
the brute force of majorities then. We never! 
made any ruffian's threat or braggart's boast,' 
f'7dt/ waiting for another e.xjiression of the \vi\\\ 
of the American people. And now, in the| 
same spirit with which you demand the right 
to convert men into merch:indise, you talk 
of dismembering a great liepuhlic and es- 
tablishing empires. Do gentlemen so se- 
riously mistake the nature of our Union? 
The Amph\cti<jnic council, the Acha;an and 
Ionian league, the Swiss and Italian Kepub-i 
lies, like the first Confederation of our fa- 
ther.-i, were but Stales in alliance ; ours is aj 
Union of the peoplie. The Constitution itself! 
shows by whom made and for what puri)ose., 
We, the people, not the States, for the pur-i 
pose of a more perfect union. The powen 
that created can alone destroy. I 

The question is not how, Shall the African! 
b« a slave, but shall the white freemen or 
the nation control the Government ? Shall 
I, my constituents, my State, my .section,! 
pass under the yoke, and grant a willingii 



submission to a power which yield.s to no 
reason, is controlled by no Constitution, 
guided by no laws? 

Wc are told that wc must submit because 
we have been misrepresented at home and 
abroad ; because southern people, in their 
blind infatuation, believe that we intend to 
overrun, devastate, and destroy, the southern 
States, and liberate their slaves by force. 1 
am not disposed to humiliate myself to ex- 
cuse or atone for another's folly. We are 
not responsible for the ignorance of your peo- 
ple. Wc have neitlier created nor contrib- 
uted to it. You sutler papers filled with the 
ultra doctrines of Garrison to be circulated, 
while those which are exponents of Republi- 
can principles are consigned to the flames. 
•Southern and northern orators have willfully 
and wickedly misrepresented our purposes 
and objects. Vou have been arousing and 
alarming the worst passions of your people, 
and now you say you cannot control them. 
Vou have sown the wind, now yourselves 
reap the whirlwind. You have created the 
storm, now bend yourselves before its fury or 
break. While you have lashed the angry 
waves into threatening billows, you ask us 
to cut away our masts and scuttle our ship, 
so that you may enjoy one wide-spread ruin. 
You are now exultant over the deHtruction 
you are hoping to produce. 

■' LIko the iKOonbcaiiis on the bluatcd ht>Bth 
Mocking its desolation" — 

you are striving to prevent the fulfillment of 
the prediction made by the Bishop of Cloyne 
more than a century ago, when speaking of 
this vast continent : 

"Times noblest empire is the Inst." 

You have been shorn of your strength by 
your own Delilah ; and now in your blind- 
ness would wrap your arms around the pil- 
lars of the Republic and perish in its ru- 
ins. 

But your northern allies are atoning for 
their work of folly by branding their own 
falsehoods. Ought not this to remove ap- 
prehension from the minds of your people ? 
You trusted them to believe thoir false- 
hoods. Why not believe them when the 
dangers they have produced imd the fears 
they have excited are extorting from them 
an honest confession? If you will not hear 
.Moses and the Prophets, you would not be 
convinced though one rose from the dead. 

This hour witnesses the fulfillment of all 
we have predicted as to the encroachmenta 
iaud demands of slavery. From coercing the 
labor of one race, it places its hand on our 
throat, and, in the language of the highway- 
man, demands our money or our life, our 
Government or our jirinciples. Do they fail 
to see that, when this institution is carried 
to the Territories, the freemen of the North 
are driven from it? 

What a commentary upon this institution 



that, like the Upas tree, every green leaf and 
flower of those rights which exalt man and 
dignify his existence, must perish beneath 
its shadow. A few days since, when thei 
gentleman from Georgia was delivering hisi 
valedictory, and presenting his grievances} 
to the world, he said they could not tolerate^ 
that white men like St;M.\ER should address' 
southern audiences ; and that freedom of the 
press and circxilation of printed matter could 
not be allowed iu his State; and, for fear the 
incoming Administration should exercise itsi 
power to prevent the rifling of the mails inj 
southern States, where we pay from thel 
Treasury §2,500,000 for their transportation, 
he gave notice, in advance, that they would' 
commit treason and destroy the Union.; 
Can the enormity of the slave power be pre-: 
sented in anj' stronger light ? This very 
day, beneath the shadow of hoary oppres-j 
sion, and at the foot of thrones covered with 
the dust of centuries, free speech and free| 
press begins to grow and flourish. Yet thej 
American Republic, at the peril of its exist-| 
ence, is forced to extend a system more des-' 
potic than tyranny and more dogmaticali 
than priestcraft. j 

The popular sovereignty candidate for the! 
Presidency, after the humiliating boast that' 
he could travel through the South unharm- 
ed, adds that Abraham Lincoln was born in 
Kentucky — the graves of his parents were| 
there — but he dare not visit them. Darel 
not 1 Is that the language to address tol 
American citizens ? That littfe sentence' 
contributed more to the election of Lincoln 
than the speeches of all his friends. If that' 
were true, freemen could feel and understand 
its force ; and the quiet, though stern men 
of the nation would naturally inquire upon; 
what principles the Government was being! 
administered. Dare not go by the graves of 
his fathers ! A man born in Kentucky, withi 
no brand on his brow, and no stain on his! 
seul, pure and upright in all the relations of! 
life, charged with no crime against the lawSj 
m>f God and man, dare not travel through 
what he boasts to call his country, to plant} 
flowers or shed tears upon the graves of his 
ancestors ! And you coolly say we must 
have no Government to protect such men.! 
Kentucky has spurned the demagogue, and 
now she repudiates his libel. 

Now, you ask us to compromise. What 
have we to concede ? We have done you 
no wrong, and propose none. You have! 
been compromising for years, until youi 
yourselves have often told us the day for 
comi)romise was ])ast. You compromised 
iu 1850, and called it a finality. You com- 
promised in 1854 by violating a siicred com- 
promise, called that a finality, and said you 
had removed the agitation out of Congress. 
The only finality we have had for years, we 
had at the ballot-box the 6th day of Novem- 
ber last. True to your instincts, you are' 



trying to set aside that finality that you may 
renew agitation. Yon propose now to lay 
your hands upon the ark of the covenant our 
fathers set up, to amend the Constitution, 
to give you greater guarantees for slavery 
than the States exacted when each held 
slaves. You have suggested no compromise 
that does not involve submis.<ion and sur- 
render on our part. You have proposed no 
plan which concedes anything to the North. 
You ask us to admit the truth of your 
charges against us, by a declaration in the 
Constitution that we will never steal your 
slaves or deprive you of your rights. Of 
what avail would that be if yonr present po- 
sition is correct, that one State, however 
insignificant, can destroy the whole fabric ? 
iYou who have violated the Constitution and 
iset the laws at defiance, are demanding con- 
■stitutional guarantees that we will do neither! 
Will you tell what concessions you propose 
to the North ? Do you propose any addi- 
'tional security for the protection of the Hfe 
;and liberty of the northern man in the slave 
!States ? Additional security for the sacred 
iright of property when that proi)erty con- 
jsists in books on political, moral, or reli- 
gious subjects not having your approbation? 
jThat you will not banish the cottage Bible 
from your realm because its compiler may 
be opposed to slavery? Any security for 
:the freedom of speech and press, already 
!supp®sed to be secured by the Constitution? 
j You say you concede to freedom north of 
|36° 30^ : that is no concession. We bought 
that right in 1820, when we received Missouri 
as a slave State into the Union. You forced 
that right from us in 1854, and then wo 
conquered it through the strife and blood of 
ia civil war ; so that we have already a 
jdouble title — first by purchase, and then by 
jconquest. But you yield to freedom all 
Ithat we may acquire north of that line. We 
never can obtain any more. Canada and 
Jthe E5ritish possessions will never be ours. 
;All our future acquisitions, if any, must be 
jsouth of that line in the direction of the 
jtropics, and you demand its unconditional 
surrender to slavery. Under the delusion 
jof a compromise you seek to betray us into 
|a surrender to the very men who are com- 
pact-breaker.s, and who claim that a com- 
ipromisc, to which the faith of the nation was 
jpledged, had no sacredness beyond an ordi- 
inary act for the collection of the revenue or 
jthe 'establishment of a post route. You have 
jfor years been telling tis that all geograph- 
ical lines were sectional and dangerous to 
the peace and stability of the Union, entire- 
ly tuuonstitutional ; finally, you olitaincd a 
decision of the Supreme Court to that eftcct, 
When you suddenly discover that the Con- 
Istitution is unconstitutional, and you seek 
:its amendment to establisli sectional lines. 
In 1820 you establish the Missouri line to 
save the Union ; in 1854 you destroy it to 



f) 



save the Union ; and now, in 1861. von om 
see the salvation of the Kejiuhlii- only 
through its re-establishment and perpetni- 
ty^with the tiew and startlinp: condition an- 
nexed, that slavery must he forever protect- 
ed in all onr future acquisitions. No won- 
der gentlemen are regretting its destructif)n ; 
no wonder gliosis of murdered victims will 
rise before them, and not down at their >)id- 
ding; no wonder tliev should strive to ban- 
ish the ajiparition of the bloody hand, and 
men like the Senator from Illinois should 
desire to act as though they had never ut- 
tered a word or cast a vote. 

Your unholy crusade, therefore, against 
the Union, is to extend thi area of slavery. 
For that purpose you invoke the f Jod of bat- 
tles, when your system ignores all His attri- 
butes and delieo the spirit of His teachings. 
You talk of the sacredness of your homes, 
when for years you have been despoiling the 
homes of thousands, and suffer four million 
human beings to have no iiearthstones around 
which the affections may cluster. You talk 
about the recollection of wives and children 
to nerve your arm. when your system de- 
stroys tlie relation of husband and -wife, and 
violates the hoJif'st tie of parent and child. 
You talk of reconstruction. Believe it not. 
The compromises ofiJie present Constitution 
once lost, you never can regain. Think you 
another Senate can be formed wherein Del-i 
aware and Florida can equal New York and 
I'ennsylvania ? Another House of Repre- 
HiiUtatives wherein you will be allowed 
twenty Representatives on account of your! 
property in man? You are now opposed to 
the Army and Navy, because you boldly as- 
sert that an enforcement of the laws means 
a coercion of the States. You were willing 
to vote millions to transport troops and pro- 
visions two thousand miles, over jirairie and 
desert, to coerce our brethren in Utah, when 
you said they were in rebellion to the Gov- 
ernment. You sent the Army into Kansas! 
to subdue the freemen in the North. You 
have used the Federal troops to enforce 
tiie fugitive slave law. When John Brown, 
with as much authorit}'- to seize the property 
of the nation as j'ou possess, took the arse- 
nal at Harper's Ferry, the marines of the 
United States were sent to its rescue You! 
dreaded not then its despotic power. Thei 
camp had no terrors. The plume of the sol- 
dier and the gilded trappings of the officer 
did not fill you with disgust. Yoti oppose 
coercion, yet, by force of armed men, you 
seize the forts and navy-yards of the United 
Slates, and trample the stars and stripes in 
the dust.' 

I desire not to preserve this Union at the 
point of the bayonet : but we do not mean f'o 
lie driven from it b}' force, if you desire a 
peaceable secession, why do you not seek it? 
A convention of all the States possibly would 
bid the seceding States depart in peace. But; 



when you forcibly seize the Federal prop- 
erty, and tlien fire upon its (lag. you should 
not sit down and picture the horrors of civil 
[War. You seem willing to spread the pall 
of desolation over the land, strike down the 
last home of the oppressed, the last hope of 
freedom, for the purpose of e.xtending, in the 
name of liberty, and under the shield of re- 
ligion, the institution of slavery. Tlie gen- 
tleman from Maryland, [Mr. Haiuus,] who 
has just taken his seat, appeals to us most 
earnestly to make some compromise to save 
the Union. Why not appeal to the men who 
arc laboring for its destruction? As well 
stop the bold fireman who is heroically 
struggling with the Haraes, instead of seiz- 
ing the incendiary who applied the torch to 
the temple. We desire not the destruction 
even of South Carolina. Jewish history, 
which you so much venerate, admonishes us 
Ithat they had a South Carolina in their con- 
|federacT. and she seceded. After, three se- 
vere battles, the disunionists were extermi- 
jnated. The conquerors indulged in no shouts 
'of victory, but '• came to the house of God, 
and abode there till even, before God, and 
lifted up their voices and wept sore; and 
said: Lord God of Israel, why is this 
come to pass in Israel, that there should be 
:to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?" 

If the people consent, let the cotton States 
depart. Then let us vote millions to pur- 
ichase the slaves of the border States as fiist 
as either of them may desire to sell ; then,. 
let us purclfase for them a home in Central 
lAmerica, where, by our fostering care, we 
may rear them to habits of industry and 
good government, and, in a measure, atone 
:fbr the injury and injustice ages of oppres- 
sion have heaped tipon them. 

An intelligent correspondent of the New 
York Herald furnishes that paper the fol- 
lowing figures: Slavery in Maryland has de- 
creased 6.0Q0 in the last decade. There are 
'in that State 80,000 slaves ; which, at Sr>00 
per head, would only amount to 840,000,000. 
A duty of ten per cent, on the S-iOO.OOOjOOC-'- 
of annual import.^ would pay for them in a 
single year. Baltimore would soon rival 
j Philadelphia as a manufacturing city, and 
jMaryland would be converted into a garden 
jto supply the wants of northern cities. Del- 
aware has only 2,000 slaves. One million 
ilollars would indemnify the owners, and 
make her a free State. Missouri has but 
100,000 slaves. Fifty million dollars would 
pay for them, and make her rival Illinois in 
wealth, population, and improvement. Thus 
less than Si 00,000, 000 would rid them all 
of an institution tor which neither their cli- 
mate nor products are suited, and bestow on 
them the advantages of free labor. 

You also insist upon dissolving the Union 
Ijecause some men believe that slavery will 
finally pass from the earth. Who that has 
faith in God does not helieve that in the end 



T 



" Like the 

tilled; 
You mav break, 

will; 
But the sCPiit of the rosea will hang rouiid it still." 



vnse in which ri).s(»s have once hoen dis- 
you may i uiii, the T.•\^e, if you 



all forms of oppression will aisappear? The principles of our fathers we will ever 
Continued struggles for thousands of years, i adore as "token? upon our hands"' and as 
offering up millions of lives and oceans of: :■• frontlets between our eyes." You may 
blood, have not yet solved the problem olVshatter the Union, but the holiest associa- 
the white man'.s deliverance. Man for agesjtiou for ages to come will gather around and 
was as blind as the unthinking horse; the{ garnish its ruins. The travel-stained pil- 
mind in its crude dovelopment revealed not!;grini in liberty's cause will, through all time, 
to him the secret of his p(jwer, nor his right[;wce[) its overthrow, 
divine to a free inanhood as of stern justice 
uprising from the innate intelligence within 
him. Had it been otherwise, the throne and 
he who sat on it would have been powdered 
in the dust; nor longer would the body have, 
submitted to stripes and chains, nor the| ^'^o" "i^^J destroy our temple, but, like the 
spirit flapped it.s wings against Ijonds andi^^^^^ed olive on the Acropolis, the burnt 
prison walls in its soarings to be free. Thei^^"-"^? '^^''1' immediately put forth a •' fresh 
wild democracies of Greece would havci^^o*^*^! '^ cubit in length. " Have you some 
made liberty calm and tranquil as a summer: l^odern Minotaur, for which periodic: lly you 
sea, and the" turbulent republics of the Swiss! ,"''11 ^^'^ct a tribute of principle ? Can you 
cantons would have humbled the proud pa-i'^o*^ ^i^ satisfied with the golden fleece; "but 
laces of Europe before the stern and steadyN^^''^ .>'0" c^'^y off someMedeabesides ? Pur- 
tramp of enlightened freemen. Everywhere' i^tie not so far that, like Aristomenes. you 
we sympathize for the oppressed, aiid hope ;'"<'}' 'o^e your shield, and there may be no 
for their deliverance. Mr. Yaiicyin a speech,! i'^^'^se of Trophouius in which to findit. 
in New York city last October, said, the Rus-li Let us be true to the Constitution, the 
sian serf had the right to revolution. Every! j'^'^"'""> ^^^ *^P laws; let us no longer se- 
man can run the parallels. In the late hc'-iiPul^'^*-''" (breams thataredead ; and the rain- 
roic struggle for Italian nationality and unity! p^ow of promise will arch again for us, and 
were we not allowed to breath^ the prayerjl'^^^^ visions of night once more be gilded 
that from her baptism of blood the sun" ofil'^^'t^ glory- 

universal freedom might break forth and ' I think I can see the finger of the Al- 
Hght man's pathway with a brightness aslit^^'ghty moving on the troubled waters. Men 
clear and beautiful and free as that whichij^'^d "'^tions will do but little in warring 
tinged her mellow waves, beamed in bcatity^i'^gfi'"^'^ His decrees, or compromising His 
upon her valleys, and fringed the brown!|.ii',flgiients. Reckless threats or idle boasts 
summits of her towering mountains. f of your power and courage will avail no- 

We believe the time must come when the: I'^'Dg- The gentleman from Virginia exult- 
white race will be free and the African nou^'^ that I.eonidas and his three hundred 
longer a slave. Do you now propose to re- |Sp:^rlans were slaveholders. He may yet 
tard the civilization of the world for centu-ii'C''i''n that, a people can possess the vices and 
ries and to turn back the hands on the dial||<^'\'ils of one generation withont attaining to 
of liberty? "Would you inaugurate thctime|{''h^'r valor and greatness. Remember that 
when beneath shadows of the monuments ll^is "rm is strong whose cause is just. The 
reared in freedom's cause the watch-firesj|slaves of the Greeks were of the white 
will cease to burn ; " when the patriot mo-jji'^ces, of those captured in "war, with whom 
ther, nursing her half-famished infant, willjitliey compromised by giving slavery instead 
startle at the hoot of the owl or the rust-jjOf death. At that period of the world, the 
ling of the raven's wing?" God grant youiiEthiopian was highly esteemed. The Gre- 
may never accomplish so much. I wo'uldMcian said "he was of swarthy complexion 
rather hope for returning reason, or even from his neighborhood to the sun, was a fa- 
avenging justice, and patiently await theij^'orite of the gods, and sometimes honored 
lime when 



"Freed(>m, hand in hand with labor, 
Walketli strong and brave; 

On the forehead of his neighbor 
No man writeth. • slave !' " 



|by visits from the celestials.'' Peter falter- 
jcd in the path of duty, and fell. Christ re- 
fused to compromise, and established His 
Idivinity. Like Peter, we are erring. Ifanv- 
^thing could seduce us from the integrity of 
I said last winter, I repeat now : 1 will in- our faith, it would be to strike hands over 
stitute no comparison between the North and, the altar of our common liberties with noble 
the South as to numbers or natural cour-: patriots at the South and on this floor, who, 
age. Read the lessons of history, and learn feeling that they have a country to save and 
from them of those who have been reared a God to serve, have rebuked disunion and 
"where nature's heart beats strong and high branded treason. 

amid the hills.'' You may widen and deepen All hail the gallant State of Kentucky, 
the gulf between freedom and slavery, but peering like a rock in mid-ocean, unshaken 
can you vainly hope to bridge the Hellespont !by wind and wave, beating back the mad, 
or cnnal Mount ATho='' te'mpcstuous billows! Your gallant Holt 



^ 



nnmftBked treason at the capital, and your 
noble Anderson sustained vour honor and 
ours at Fort Sumter. Land of the "dark 
and bloody ground," whose name kindles 
glorious associations and holy memories ! 
Brave, loyal men of Kentucky; you of the 
•• lion heart and eagle eye " have given a new 
augury that the Union must be preserved in 
fadeless immortality. Corae not as suppli- 
.ants, nor with arms in your hands, but as 
you are coming, with the simple garland ot 
olive on your brow?, and hearts glowing 
v^ith love for the Constitution and laws of 
your country ; make known your grievances ; 
and the nation will rise up with one accord 
to do you justice. Do such a people wrong? 
Never! Southern men who have made this 
charge against us will be the first to renounce^ 
it. No, sir: the least of the rights of Ken- 
tucky under the Constitution can never be 
taken or attempted to be taken from her. 
Should her rights be invaded, thousands of 
northern swords would leap from their scab- 
bard.s. and every free State Avould feel proud 
to furnish men and treasure in her defense. 
The great commoner sleeps well on your 
bosom, and you are determined that his grave 
shall never be moistened with brothers' blood, 
and over his tomb shall never be heard the 
battle-shock of brothers in conflict. You 
venerate his memory, and cherish the senti- 
ments he uttered in the Senate Chamber in 
1850, when Georgia was threatening to cc- 
cede from the Union; when he said : 

" Now I stand here in my place, meaning to be un- 
awed by any threats, whether they come from indi- 
viduals or from States. 1 Khould deplore as uiach as 
any man that arms should be raised against the au- 
thority o( the Union, either bj- individuals or by 
States. But after all that has occurred, if any one 
State, or a portion of the people of any Slate, choose 
to place themselves in military array against the Gov- 
ernment of the Union, I am f»r trying the strength of 
the Government ; I am for ascertaining whether wc 
have a Oovernaient or not — practical, efficient, capa- 
ble of maintaining its authority and upholding the 
powers and interests which belong to a Government. 
Nor, sir, am 1 to be .alarmed or dissuaded from any 
such course by intimidations of the spilling of blood. 
If blood is to be spilt, by whose fJault is it ? It will be 
the fault of those who choose to raise the standard of 
disunion and endeavor to prostata this Government. 
And, sir, when that is done, so long as it pleases God 
to give me a voice to express my sentfments, or an 
arm, we.-ik and enfeebled as it may be by age, that 
voice and that arm will be on the side of my country, 
for the support of the general authority, and for the 
maintenance uf the powers of this Union.'' 

The true men of Kentucky need bm-e no fears 
of their brethren in the North; but had they, 
to their devotion and nobility almost auy 
concessions would be yielded that a brave, 
loyal people ought to ask of brave, loyal 
brethren. 

We have been told by Senators that some 
of the southern btates are on the war path,' 
and, while they are brandishing the toma- 



hawk and scalping-knife, about converting 
the warfare of opinion into a contest of blood; 
while the Catalines of the nation are con- 
spiring in the Capitol to de.'itroy the liberties 
of the i>cople and the jiowers of the Govern- 
ment : while treason has been flaunting in 
the departments of the Administration, and 
our proud ensign, which has commanded the 
fear of hostile nations and the respect of all 
the world, defiantly insulted, we are called 
upon to compromise with rebels, with can- 
non pointed at us stolen from the national 
arsenals. For m\'self, sir, never! I would 
rather perish on the threshold of this Capitol, 
defending the stars and stripes which float 
over it, than vote, at such a time, for any 
compromise involving a sacrifice of principle. 
You yourselves would despise a people who 
would exhibit the cowardice to retreat in 
the face of an armed an threatening foe. 
The true men of the north and South will 
rally round that standard sheet, determined 
to defend and protect it from enemies with- 
out and foes within. Some stars on its glit- 
tering fold may dart off into a comet's wand- 
ering or a meteor's flight, but they will find 
the}- shine not so brightly in any other con- 
stellation. 

In the ma'dness of the hour, you sing no 
more our national ballads. '■ The Star- 
Spangled Banner" and '-Hail Columbia," 
wliich for years have inspired glowing pat- 
riotism, no longer kindle in your hearts the 
holy emotion of freedom. You sing now the 
more incendiary Marselaise. Beware lest, 
while you sing, your slaves may learn to act 
its poetry — 

" But man is man. and who is more ? 
Then shall they longer lash, and goad us? 
Oh, liberty! c^n man resign the«, 
Once having felt thy generous flame ; 
Can dungeon, bolts, and bars confine thee, 
Or whips thy noble spirit t«une?" 

No loyal American, whatever bis individ- 
ual or sectional grievances, can wantonly 
dishonor the flag of his fathers. His heart 
will cling to it in the spirit of Ruth, when 
she said to Naomi, " Whither thou goest, I 
will go, and where thou lodgest, 1 will lodge ; 
thy people shall be my people, and thy God 
my God. Where thou diest will I die; and 
there will I be buried." 

When the passion of the hour subsides, 
and rea.^on leads to a calm reflection, you 
will say, with us : 

'■ 'Tis the flag of America, it floats over the brave; 
'Tisthe fnirest unfurled on the land or tlie wave; 
But, thou brightest in story and matchless in fight, 
'Tis the herald of mercy as well as of might. 

" In the cawse of the wronged may it ever be first, 
'Where tyrants are humbled, and fetters nre bunt ; 
Be justice the war shout, and dastard is he 
'Who would scruple to die 'ueatb the flagof tbefr^e " 



W. H. Moore, Printer, Washington, D. C. 



'■&. 



?o 



